Chase, Samuel
Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and sighner of the Declaration of independence, Samuel Chase was impeached for his bad judgement when it came to the law. During his career, his conduct on the bench was described as, "unfair," "biased," "partial," and "oppressive." He had been appointed by President Washington to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1791, and was impeached by Congress in December 1804, when the House chraged him on eight articles of impeachment. On of the reasons for his impeachment was due to the decision he made on a small time farmer and veteran of the Revolutionary War. It was called the Fries case and was due to the organization of many neighboring farmers, that were tring to resist war taxes in 1798. Chase was outragged by Fries actions and charged him with treason, Fries was sentenced to the hanging. Even in other cases like the James Callender case, the attitude of the associate justice was even worse. James Callender had wrote a book in 1800 which criticized President Adams. Chase found this an unacceptable act and charged him with violating the Sedition Act. During the impeachment proceeding, Chase's lawyers argued that Chase had not commited any crime as being an associate justice, rather that he was widely hated and no one liked his methods when dealing with crimes. However, the prosecutors disagreed, they believed that he had a repution as a biased judge that ruled against those whose politics he disagreed with. In the end, they agreed to acquit Chase of all his charges on March 1, 1805. He continued to serve as a member of the Supreme Court until his death on June 19, 1811.